We have been pulling ticks off the dog for weeks. But we also live in the country and have lots of land around us where she runs. For a city yard it is easier to control but what you are suggesting I have not heard of working for ticks. When I lived in South FL and worked as a groomer, trainer and petsitter as well as breeding I found my best product was bio spot. It really cut down on fleas and ticks. I had used everything under the sun over the years and this was the one thing they did not build up a resitance too. Only thing is it can be washed off. I have it on my new dog and we are already finding dead ticks coming off of her.

For the yard we limed it around the perimeter. To creat a no cross barrier since our neibors were not as hard core on prevention as I was. I know of many that use Sevin for this but I wanted something more natural.

Thanks for the feedback Akewa, I'll look into the bio spot

A few years back, my husband pulled a tick off his leg. A couple of weeks later I made him go to the doctor to get the bull's eye rash checked out and it was Lyme disease. We did a lot of research about ticks in our back yard that year.

Keep the grass and weeds cut SHORT. They hang out in the tall stuff. And my husband went to Lowe's and got something designed to kill ticks and thoroughly sprayed the perimeter of the yard according to the label instructions. He did it for two years, once or twice a year, probably three or four times a year the first year. But he really hasn't had to spray again. And we keep our grass cut and weeds out of the fence rows.
Spots won't make ticks let go either. They may prevent, but no matter what the label says, they don't kill ticks. We got a new dog and started him on Advantix immediately. The groomer pulled several ticks off him even after he got his spot. We're sure the ticks came with him because the other dogs don't have ticks and he was from out in the country and had been in the woods shortly before he came to us.

I'm not one for a lot of chemicals in my backyard, I like the birds and the rabbits and all that. But I love my husband more and Lyme disease is a scary, scary thing. Don't mess around with this, it's not worth it! Your dogs can get Lyme too.

I actually bought a garden tractor so I can keep my grass cut short. I looked up on the Lyme Disease website that was one of the best ways to keep ticks from getting on you. Other things it mentioned was wearing light colored clothes since you'd be able to see the ticks, wearing long legged pants, long sleeves, and to tuck pants into your socks and tuck in your shirt.

That said, can you imagine gardening in our hot humid summers in long pants and long-sleeved shirts???

Even though I'm careful and try not to walk or work in areas with tall grass, every night I find a tick or two. A couple of days ago, my ear lobe started itching, and I reached up to find a tick just starting to attach itself. And this was in a shady area under a pecan tree next to the house where I was planting Hostas and Ferns- no where near the pasture/meadow.

I bought a granular chemical at the local farm store to kill fire ants - that's another problem here - but haven't used it even though it says it'll kill ticks and fleas because it will also kill the "good bugs" and I want to keep them. If spraying/broadcasting insecticide just around the perimeter will help keep the ticks at bay, then I'll use the stuff.

I'm about to enter the wonderful world of tick infestation. I visited my new property again yesterday -- picked three ticks off my jeans while I was still there, and I've gotten four off of my body since then.

There's no way for me to mow all my acreage, and I wouldn't want to destroy the native plants in the back part anyway. I plan to be using lots of Adams flea and tick spray on the dogs and cats, and lots of some nasty sort of spray on myself when I go out!

Oh, Doc, having "acreage" is wonderful, and I'm only mowing about three of the five here which were pasture. The rest are woods and a small pond. I decided to buy the tractor instead of hiring someone to bush hog because I can mow around things I want to keep instead of indiscriminate shearing of everything. For example, there is a huge swath of daffodils that didn't bloom when the other ones did here, but I mowed around the foliage to let it die naturally in hope that I'd have flowers next year. What do you know! They were late daffs and began flowering the next week.

I am so thrilled to be able to take walks in the woods looking for woodland wildfowers and have space to plant all the things I had to turn down before on my small, shady, city lot. I know you will be too. How much land will you have?

i bought half a dozen baby chicks. they seem to love to eat ticks.

My new place is not astoundingly big -- six acres. I need to get a tractor/riding mower too, but even if I get one I won't be mowing the mixed hardwoods in the front of the property, OR the grassy glade area near the back -- the part that's past a bunch of cedar scrub -- or any of the cedar scrub either! I would get guineas if the property wasn't so narrow (I'm sure they'd go visit the neighbors) and if I didn't have all these pointy-nosed dogs that would just love to chase those guineas!

Doc, your mowing plan is exactly my style. The neighbors must think I'm a slob (wildflowers = weeds), but hey, that's one reason I moved to the country.

My Sears Craftsman "tractor" looks nothing like a John Deere and cost a lot less. I shopped at the big box stores, looked online at other brands, and finally decided I could get more for my money with the one I ultimately chose which was one of the top two consumer rated ones on the Sears website. They delivered it to my door, and a repairman came the next week when I had trouble starting it. Since then, it's run like a charm, but I do feel like I'm riding a wagon instead. The thing even came with a cupholder, but I discovered quickly that a water bottle with a cap would be a better idea than a carbonated soft drink! First of all, all the carbonation was quickly shaken out of the can, then dust and grit got inside it.

Oops, I forgot, to comment on chickens. I'd love to do that at some point, but one of my two dogs was run over in February, and I have a new German Shepherd puppy. Those big paws take a lot of supervision, and I'm so busy right now trying to build garden beds and spruce up the property, that I don't have time to build a chicken coop too. There's a great article on chickens in the current issue of Horticulture, not to mention the one on Poison Ivy. That's another added bonus of country life!